by Rusty Ellis
The DeKalb County Lady Tigers advanced to the semifinals of the District 6AA Tournament on Monday with their 2-0 win over Upperman.
The game was scoreless up until the 18th minute, when Darrah Ramsey opened the scoring off a rebound to put the Lady Tigers up 1-0. Both teams threatened multiple times in the first half, but when the buzzer sounded, the game went to half with that same 1-0 score.
14 minutes into the second half, DeKalb had a golden opportunity to double their lead, but Raven Savage’s shot was too high and the Lady Bees survived a scare on the play.
54:00 Second Half
Raven Savage has a golden opportunity to give DeKalb a two-goal lead, but fires it over the crossbar.
UHS 0
DCHS 1 pic.twitter.com/U09TikxUSB— Rusty Ellis (@RustyEllis_) October 11, 2022
The final nail was put in the Upperman coffin in the final minute of the match, as Candice Rico found the back of the net for the Lady Tigers to close out the 2-0 win and clinch a spot for DeKalb in the semifinals.
Though it wasn’t the outing he was expecting from his team, head coach Dylan Kleparek was proud of how his team kept fighting against the Lady Bees.
“I think we came out a little slow tonight, but they put some pressure on us,” Kleparek said. “It felt like a basketball game with how much the ball went up and down the field, and we’re more of a counter-attack team, so when they sat back on us, it frustrated us. Overall, I’m proud of my girls and we’re moving on.”
DeKalb had several chances in front of the net to put some distance between themselves and Upperman on the scoreboard, but they just couldn’t finish them. Kleparek knows they’ll have to do better at that moving forward in the postseason.
“That’s what we just talked about after the game,” Kleparek said. “When you create opportunities, you have to take advantage of them, and we’ve kind of struggled with that lately. We’ve got to dig down deep and get those goals when we get the chances.”
The Lady Tigers will face Livingston Academy at 7 P.M. on Tuesday at Cumberland County in the semifinals.